MGMT4P96 – Business & Society

Asma Zafar| Assistant Professor | Goodman School of Business

Environmental Issues – continued

Thursday, February 16, 2023

Agenda
 Housekeeping ~ 5 minutes
 Simulation – round 2 (London) ~ 30 minutes
 Debriefing and theory discussion ~ 30 minutes

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES 2
Housekeeping
 First group project assignment coming up!
 After the reading week break, we will come back to hear from groups about their idea presentations

 Short (~ 5 minute presentations)

 Please prepare slides – max 5 slides (excluding title and thank you) (though it may be an oral presentation)

 What to include
 What’s the company you have chosen (some background, when did it start, what industry, what size)
 What is the issue you will discuss (e.g., is it about their CSR, or about the environment, etc.)
 What is your workplan (where you will find data, who will do what, project timeline)

 Where to submit (if making a slide deck)

 Brightspace D2L under “assignments”

 When is it due?
 March 02, 2023, submit the presentation anytime prior to the class PLEASE NOTE THE CHANGE OF DATE

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Project groups

Group number Members

1 Aric, Lex, Michael Damaia, Gwen
2 Makayla, Brendon, Curtis, Teodora, Caleb
3 Kaitlin, Jacob, Ryan, Nolan, Alexander
4 Matt, Will, Hussein, Michael DeAngelis, Emily
5 Colin, Cam, Marco, Michael Kazimowicz
6 Godfrey, Shashwat, David, Nick, Michael Macleod

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES 4
Today’s learning objective
 To experience how characteristics of a place matter for organizational
sustainability practices
 To further our discussion on environmental issues facing organizations
today

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Net Zero – a few reminders
 Thank you for playing in the previous class…
 The same exercise today in a different city
 Timed play, only 30 – 35 minutes to finish all 7 rounds
 Choose from three initiatives each year
 Stay profitable while reducing your carbon emissions by 50% over the next 7
years

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Simulation debrief

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Net Zero – how are you feeling
 How was your experience?
 How are you feeling after playing both rounds?
 What surprised you?

 Reflection
 Which sources of emissions were relatively easy to manage?
 What was the impact of the Hotel’s sustainability initiatives on the hotel’s
economic performance?
 What did you learn about the boarder impact of environmental issues on various
organizations?

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Development of emissions by scope
 How did the hotel’s emissions develop by Scope?
 Scope 1: Emissions resulting from on-site activity
 Reduce to zero if Electric Vehicles are purchased (Initiative E3)
 Scope 2: Emission arising from purchased electricity
 Major source of emission reductions
 Scope 3: Emissions that result from activities in the wider value chain of the
organization
 Initiatives in purchasing impact Scope 3 emissions
 Did scope 3 emissions temporarily increase as a result of any initiatives? For example:
 Solar panels
 LED lighting
 Electric Vehicles

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How did we do – emissions by scope

Tipton New New York CCLMMG

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How did we do – energy consumption

Tipton New New York CCLMMG

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How did we do – operating profit

Tipton New New York CCLMMG

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Environmental issues – more theory and background

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Grave environmental issues issues…
 Depleting carrying capacity of the Earth
 Climate Change: changes in the Earth’s climate caused by increasing
concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases
 Global warming
 Ozone depletion
 Caused by harmful chemicals used in industrial activity
 Scarcity of natural resources such as water, and arable land
 Decreasing biodiversity: the number and variety of species and the range
of their genetic makeup has been decreasing
 More than 800 species gone extinct; 3800 critically endangered; violation of
animal rights
 Threatened marine eco-system
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES 14
Climate change is real!
 Six warmest years
have occurred since
2015
 Top 10 warmest years
have occurred since
2000
 NASA has ranked
2020 (and 2016) as
the warmest year(s)
on record!

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A key driver of global warming…
 Industrial activity!

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Canadian drivers of greenhouse gas emissions

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The concept of “the commons”

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Tragedy of the commons
 The tragedy of the commons occurs when individuals share a common
resource and take more than their fair share from that resource for their
short-term gain
 Can you think of some examples of “commons” or resources shared by
everyone in the world?
 Let’s watch the following video and come back
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZDjPnzoge0

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES 19
Fast fashion waste is depleting our commons!
 “It's our job to make women unhappy with what they have in the way of
apparel” B. Earl Puckett, Chairman Allied Stores, U.S. (1950)
 “At Chorkor beach, near the capital Accra, layer upon layer of rich-
country detritus forms a wall more than 6 feet high, like geological strata
from different fashion eras. A Crocs sandal peeps out here, a blue Ralph
Lauren polo shirt there, a red Victoria's Secret bra some way down. So
solid is the putrid heap that huts sit on top, a shantytown built quite
literally on a foundation of rags.” (BusinessWeek, 2023)
 There’s still hope
 In 2013 H&M’s became the first major retailer to start a global used-clothing
collection program

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Business (market)-led solutions

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Some solutions… the sustainability trio

Can make
sustainable
choices

Govt
Can regulate
& monitor
Business
Can comply
& go
beyond

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The business case for sustainable management
 Competitive advantage  something that you do better than your
competitors and that helps you achieve better profit margins than
competitors
 Cost savings
 Subaru in Indiana has achieved a zero-waste goal leading to an annual saving
of over USD 2 Million!
 Brand differentiation
 Reputational gains to be achieved from being green. For example apple
announcing commitment to sustainability after US pulled out of the climate
accord
 Market share increases through technological innovation
 Green technology may win additional customers
 Minimization of regulatory risk
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES 23
Some business-led solutions
 Life-cycle analysis refers to analyzing which part of product’s life
stage generates most waste and then rectifying the situation
 Tide example
 Clean technology refers to the use of any technology that helps improve
environmental sustainability. Over the years, the usage of the term has
also expanded to a host of sustainable practices as well
 Electric vehicles
 Efficient supply chains that minimize waste
 Carbon offsets is a phenomenon used to encourage carbon neutrality or
net-zero emissions; simply speaking, companies in the developed world
are required to offset their carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas
emissions by investing in clean technology projects in the developing
world

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ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES 25
Key takeaways
 Decisions regarding an organization’s environmental footprint may seem to
intersect with its profit-seeking goals, however, these aren’t mutually-
exclusive choices
 Acting sustainably as gone from ‘nice to do’ to a ‘must-have’
 If we can measure it, we can manage it  so it is important to have
sustainability targets that can be measured
 Organizations need to look beyond their own consumption decisions to
their entire value chains for meaningful change

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES 26
Next class
 See you in the next class – after the reading week break!
 February 28 – corporate governance
 March 02 - Problem statement presentations will take place in the class

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